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Pilgrims fall in 2-1 battle at Rochester

ROCHESTER — Gale force winds don’t usually mean good news — unless you’re a pitcher.
Four pitchers found that out at Rochester on Tuesday night as the winds howled and the Zebras (5-1) and Plymouth Pilgrims (1-2) battled to a 2-1 final in a game that saw just four hits. It was a night of the pitcher.
“With the wind the way it was pitchers were going to dominate,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Wolfe. “The pitchers — all four of them — did a great job. Two runs (for Rochester) were an error and a passed ball and a wild pitch and a passed ball. We did a great job of getting out of a bases-loaded jam. Riley and Bailey both made some big pitches. We pitched well enough to win.”
“We thought with the wind tonight pitchers would shine and you’d better hit some balls down and scrap. I still thought maybe somebody would score three runs tonight,” said Rochester Coach Brian Hooker. “I don’t care what the conditions were; you still have to throw strikes and make something stand up, and luckily we had one more than them.”
Plymouth starter Riley Cartwright (0-1) went four innings surrendering two runs but didn’t surrender a hit while striking out three and walking four. Rochester starter Cyrus Holland went five striking out six and walking one. He was relieved by Andrew Feldman, who didn’t give up a hit and struck out the side in the final inning. Bailey Clark threw two close to perfect innings in relief of Cartwright.
“We pitched well enough to win,” said Wolfe. “We also had a chance to score with the bases loaded and one out with number four and five up. That’s what it’s going to take, getting that big hit. We were able to move, stole some bases early and in baseball it’s not how many hits you get, it’s when you get them, and we’ll get that at some point. Their pitchers did a good job of mixing pitches keeping us off-balance.”
“I told our guys there probably wasn’t going to be a lot of runs scored tonight so far as people smacking the ball around, so don’t give up anything cheap,” said Hooker. “I think both teams did a great job of that. Nobody was ever really safe out there.”
Plymouth shortstop and lead-off man Justin Drudge almost out-hit both teams with a pair of hits in the game and a stolen base. Rochester shortstop Tanner Hampton and left fielder Carter Screeton had the game’s only other hits.
Plymouth has no time to relax as they travel to Bremen tonight for a game with the Lions.
• ROCHESTER 2, PLYMOUTH 1
At Rochester
Plymouth: 001 000 0 — 1 2 1
Rochester: 100 100 x — 2 2 0
Cyrus Holland (W), Andrew Feldman (S) and Levi Brown; Riley Cartwright (L, 0-1), Bailey Clark (5) and Elijah Nixon.
SB: Justin Drudge (P), Jacob Frantz (P).